On a night where the Columbus Blue Jackets could have, would have…should have won their first game of the season, the CBJ found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This time the Jackets took a tough one on the chin…a shot that will be hard to shake off… this is not what Columbus needed.

On a Saturday night that had so much going on: world series, great college football, Caps vs Wings; I couldn’t help find myself watching the other sports – hoping that I’d change the Blue Jacket’s luck in some way. Every 10 minutes, the small group of us would check back to see how the Jackets were doing. I was okay, I DVR’d it and could watch the game later…

After missing nearly the entire third period, we turned the game on to see the CBJ where up 3-2 with two minutes to go. AND, we were on the power play! As fate would have it, my son exclaimed, “Looks like we are going to win a game!” No he didn’t – he didn’t just say that, did he? After all the supersticious avoidance of the night, he just cracked the code for the Blue Jacket’s fate… as we all jumped on him for his comments, we saw Kris Russell get pressure and hit the panic button… I yelled, “Nope! Now you did it!”

What happened next was more out of a horror movie, than a hockey game…

Daniel Alfredsson stole the Russell gaff and broke in on Steve Mason. Mason came up huge by kicking out his left pad, in time to stop the Alfredsson shot. In the process, Russell was called for tripping with1:24 left to play. The Ottawa Senators pulled their goalie and skated5-4 until Jason Spezza jammed home a rebound with 36 second left in the game.

Columbus were on their heels at the drop of the puck. The next 32 seconds seemed an eternity as the Jackets chased all of their zone. As the puck was brought back from behind the goal line, Sergei Gonchar stepped into a shot from the point and Milan Michalek was in perfect position to tip the low shot over the shoulder of Steve Mason with 4.7 seconds left. Daggers!